Hoffman made an emergency start and made it count for 11 points and 12 rebounds Monday to be one cog in the Hawks' 130-105 victory over Chesapeake Community College, a team with few players but a lot of heart, at the HCC athletic complex.

The Skipjacks had just six players, making it a comfortable van ride from the eastern shore, but went down swinging despite losing by 25 points. For HCC, the game should have been a bigger breather than it was after Saturday's tough battle with Prince George's.

Advertisement

"I'm pleased with the way we came back and gutted it out after that tough game on Saturday," HCC coach Jim Brown. "We are going to have to do the same thing again this weekend. But this game gave us an opportunity to see everyone play. It was a chance to give some minutes to people who come to practice everyday and don't play much."

Originally, Hoffman was one of those guys. But when Paul Michael injured his right thumb during the Prince George's win and Chris Roland decided to leave school, the Hancock graduate took advantage of his express elevator ride to the top of the depth chart.

"Someone had to step up and fill the space," Hoffman said, modestly. "The last couple of games, I haven't done so bad. I think I can make a contribution."

Everyone on the Hawks did on Monday, unless you include defense. HCC got the chance to play a razzle-dazzle game since Chesapeake couldn't afford to play aggressive defense, thanks to its short bench.

It allowed Brian Williams to show an assortment of dunks and Corey Tabron to work on his 3-point shooting as the led the Hawks with 20 points each.

It gave Hoffman his shot to do some strong work in the middle and allowed Rashodd Dancy (15 points), Tony Rhoades (8), Kareem Nesbitt (8) and Warren Wilson (2) some extended playing time.

But none of that happened until HCC decided to take Chesapeake seriously.

"We saw how small they were and heard they didn't have much of a reputation as a basketball school," Hoffman said. "We thought we were going to go in there and kick butt. We realized it wouldn't be like that at halftime. We have a habit of playing at the level of our competition."

The Skipjacks led 22-18 just five minutes into the game and were trailing only 32-30 with 9 minutes, 48 seconds remaining after James Thomas hit one of his nine 3-point shots.

HCC came out of a timeout and took the game in hand, using a 17-1 run over the next 3 1/2 minutes, led by Williams with eight points - including two dunks - for a 49-31 lead. HCC led 65-48 at the half and continued to pull away to as much as a 36-point lead.

Thomas finished with 39 points while Kyle Hollis added 31 as four players did all of Chesapeake's scoring.